The Street Food Stole the Show in Bangkok
On my first day in Bangkok, Thailand, I stopped at a pad thai stand on a sidewalk in Chinatown and was treated to, hands down, the best pad thai I have eaten in my entire life. It set me back 35 baht (1.10 USD). Are you kidding me?!
In early December, I spent a few days exploring Bangkok, the bustling capital of Thailand, home to 10.5 million residents. I visited some of the city’s hot-spots: the massive reclining Buddha at Wat Pho, Wat Arun “Temple of the Dawn”, Khao San Road, and Lumpini Park. I had my first experience haggling for a ride in the famous three-wheeled tuk-tuk: I loved it. I lost my bearings on numerous occasions, as I meandered down endless sidewalks and squeezed through crowded street markets. I even joined the locals and ferried down the Chao Phraya River. I was drawn to the beautiful chaos of Bangkok’s streets and the city’s colorful and ornate temples but, it was the pad thai, the simple Thai dish served on every street corner, that stole the show.
Largely inspired by my pad thai obsession, I signed up for a cooking class at Tingly’s Thai Cooking School. In the beginning of class, armed with our bamboo-woven shopping baskets, we stopped at a local market and picked up fresh vegetables. Afterwords, we returned to the kitchen, and our cooking instructor, Mina, taught us to cook four classic Thai dishes: tom yum soup, pad thai, green curry, and mango with sticky rice.
Shout out to our lovely instructor, Mina, who I befriended, and was kind enough to give me a VIP insider’s tour of Bangkok.
Bangkok Food Notes
The street food vendors in Chinatown sold the best food in Bangkok. I was dying to try the crab omelet at Jay Fai, the only street food restaurant to receive a Michelin star. Unfortunately, its legendary ski-mask donning 73 year-old owner and cook, Jay Fai, was taking a vacation! I also visited the famous Jek Pui Curry restaurant, but when I stopped by its doors were shuttered for Thailand’s Father’s Day. At Mina’s recommendation, we visited Thipsamai, Bangkok’s oldest pad thai restaurant. We had a good experience at this historic spot, but the pad thai was not worth the long wait and steep price.
Making Moves in Chiang Mai
I scrapped my original plan to head to the beaches of southern Thailand and attend a full moon party with tens of thousands of backpackers, and instead opted to fly north to Chiang Mai, the culinary capital of Thailand. In Chiang Mai, we: pretended to be Chiang Mai University students; “spider-man-ed” our way up the Bua Tong “Sticky” Waterfall; and stuffed our stomachs with unfathomable quantities of khao soi, northern Thailand’s heavenly dish.
The Journey to Doi Suthep Temple
On my first morning in Chiang Mai, I bonded with a new travel mate, Britton, in the hostel lobby. Within minutes, my new, adventurous Bostonian friend, agreed to join me on a quest to find the sacred gold roofed Wat Phra That Doi Suthep (“Doi Suthep”) temple, which is located on the top of Doi Suthep Mountain, situated on the western outskirts of Chiang Mai. (At the time, I had no idea Britton and I would spend the next couple of weeks together exploring northern Thailand and then Laos.)
We planned to hike The Monk’s Trail, a trail that snakes through the forest and up the mountain to Doi Suthep temple. Halfway up to the trail, nestled in the forest, is the Wat Pha Lat temple, where monks used to rest on their pilgrimage up to Doi Suthep temple, but since the temple road was constructed in 1935, it’s now primary used as a meditation site for monks.
We left our quiet hostel, located on the eastern edge of Chiang Mai’s Old Town, and flagged down three songthtaews (red taxi trucks that are Chiang Mai’s version of a tuk-tuk) before one finally agreed to accept our ruthlessly low bid of 30 baht (~1 USD) per person. Our driver probably did not understand our intended destination, or maybe he was upset by the agreed upon price, but he dropped us off 30 minutes away from the start of The Monk’s Trail, at the eastern entrance of Chiang Mai University (“CMU”).
Britton and I often insist on doing things our own way and, for some reason, we set our minds on taking the CMU free shuttle across campus. We kept our heads down, trying not to draw attention to our white skin, and jumped in the last row of the shuttle. We stifled back giggles, trying to inconspicuously take funny pictures of one another as we motored along the campus roads. The shuttle dropped us off half-way across campus, and we thought it was hysterical when empty shuttles zoomed past without stopping to pick us up. Eventually, a shuttle pulled over, we squeezed in among our fellow Thai students and hitched a ride the rest of the way across campus. It’s probably not that funny to everyone else, but Britton and I found this silly detour to be one of our most memorable mini-adventures during our time in Chiang Mai. It’s the small things that stick with you.
After our free ride through CMU, Britton and I set off on The Monk’s Trail and quickly fell in love with it. The trail is still frequented by monks draped in orange robs and accessorized in leather sandals, and we felt like we were making our own pilgrimage as we navigated our way up its trail. After 45 minutes, out of nowhere, the Wat Pha Lat temple appeared. We spotted monks praying, wandering peacocks, and Buddhist statues adorned with jungle vine necklaces. The jungle temple paradise was secluded, serene, and enchanting.
After our stop at Wat Pha Lat temple, we continued the trail which climbed steadily for another hour, before finally reaching a 300+ stair dragon staircase leading to Doi Suthep temple. We slid in among the hundreds of tourists, climbed the stairs, circumvented the temple grounds, and prayed among the many Buddha statues. Britton and I enjoyed our time at the Doi Suthep temple, but we both agreed that it didn’t compare to our journey through the CMU campus, our pilgrimage on The Monk’s Trail, and our visit to the charming Wat Pha Lat temple.
Nature’s Ultimate Water Park: The Bua Tong “Sticky” Waterfall
The Bua Tong Waterfall, also known as the Sticky Waterfall, is a 100 meter (330 ft), multi-tiered waterfall, hidden in Thailand’s jungle, a 1.5 hour drive from Chiang Mai. This is no ordinary waterfall. The spring water has high levels of calcium carbonate, which coat the limestone rocks and provide significant traction, permitting visitors to walk up the fall in their bare-feet, without slipping.
Britton and I visited a nearby hostel and rallied a few travelers to join us on a Sticky Waterfall day-trip. We had briefly encountered two of the Sticky Waterfall expedition members, two Americans, Harry and Caroline, the previous day while hiking down the Monk’s Trail. We had heard Harry yelling, from what seemed like a mile away; we had grimaced and categorized him as a typical loud-mouth American ignorantly responsible for disrupting the sanctity and serene nature of The Monk’s Trail. Our initial judgement could not have been further off the mark. Over the next ten days, beginning with our unreal time together at the Sticky Waterfall, Harry and Caroline proved to be hall of fame worthy travel mates.
It was both an odd and addicting sensation being able to walk up a steep waterfall. The fall was off-the-beaten path, hidden in the jungle, and appeared untouched by tourism, enhancing its charm. The Sticky Waterfall was great, but the crew that I explored the waterfall with elevated the experience to the next level. Britton, Harry, Caroline, and I raced up and down the fall. We climbed, jumped, dove, splashed, and giggled like little kids at the water park. Afterwards, our crew assembled for a photo shoot during which we took hilarious pictures while striking spider-man poses and exaggerating the stickiness of the falls. We voted and unanimously agreed that our Sticky Fall outing was deserving of a 10 out of 10 score.
Our Quest to Discover the Best Thai Food in the World
We were still on our Sticky Waterfall high when Harry, Britton, and I met up to explore Chiang Mai’s famous street food scene. That evening, we circumvented nearly the entire perimeter of Chiang Mai’s Old Town on a quest to find the best Thai food. Comically, we only taste-tested three of the fifteen food carts Harry had marked-out for us, before we maxed out and couldn’t squeeze in one more noodle.
I’m not sure what Harry, Britton, and I expected on the onset, but tracking down specific food carts in Chiang Mai is more complicated than we anticipated. The carts don’t have signs, they are often plastered with identical food photos, and we didn’t know the names of their owners. All we had were clues: near the bar called Zoe in Yellow, sometimes there is a vendor with the words “pad thai” on his food cart, he sells the best pad thai; or, on the street next to the South Gate is a woman who sells the best khao soi.
For all we know, we didn’t make it to a single vendor on our list of fifteen. Nonetheless, I am convinced the lady wearing the blue apron, on the north side of the street near the South Gate, makes the best khaoi soi in the world.
“Excuse me, do you have khao soi?” She nodded. “I hear that you make THE BEST khao soi, is this true?” Confused shrug. Small giggle.
Not sure if she understood a word of my pep talk but, that night, she delivered. The coconut-curry broth infused chicken melted in our mouths and the crispy egg noodles and wanton chip blew away the competition.
The next day, Britton and I visited Khao Soi Kad Gorm, a restaurant recommended on Netflix’s “Somebody Feed Phil”, and we both agreed that although tasty, the khao soi did not come close to the khao soi from the food vendor we had tried the previous evening.
Wrapping up My First Week in Thailand
Bangkok proved to be a great introduction to backpacking in Southeast Asia. My decision to then travel north to Chiang Mai, rather than south to Ko Pha-ngan, had worked out nicely. I’m sure I would have had some great adventures down south, but then I would have never been introduced to khao soi, the Monk’s Trail, or the Sticky Waterfall! More importantly, I had stumbled upon a fantastic new travel crew, Britton, Harry, and Caroline, and we were just getting started on our Thailand adventures together.
